Endocrine Abstracts

Case: A 19-year-old British-Asian man presented with a two-year history of gynaecomastia. He had no other symptoms of hypogonadism. On examination, BMI was 28 kg/m2 and he had post-pubertal-sized testes (20 ml) with normal secondary sexual characteristics. Hypogonadism was confirmed by two morning fasting total testosterone levels of 4.7 and 5.2 (RR 9.2–31.6 nmol/l). Haemoglobin was normal (152 g/l) and serum oestradiol was <100 pmol/l. He had inappropriate...

Introduction: Improvement in glycaemia is observed early after Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass surgery (RYGB) in patients with diabetes. Commonly cited mechanisms to account for these changes include the elevation of gut hormones, increase in bile acids levels, changes in the gut microbiota and calorie restriction. Calorie restriction is believed to play a role in improving hepatic insulin sensitivity and reduce hepatic glucose output early after RYGB, in the context of non-significa...

The role of brown adipose tissue (BAT) in pathological states of energy homeostasis and impaired adipocyte function, such as obesity has been a major area of research interest in recent years. Herein, we sought to determine the direct effects of adipokines, visfatin and leptin on BAT thermogenesis. The effects of mouse recombinant visfatin, nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN) and leptin with or without FK866 were studied on differentiated T37i cells. Treated cells were analyzed ...

Background: Obesity is a major medical health problem. Human brown adipose tissue (BAT) is potently activated by cold exposure and is a potential novel anti-obesity target. The current gold standard for measuring BAT activity in humans is 18F-FDG PET/CT. However it has two major limitations – exposure to ionizing radiation and high cost. Since BAT is a thermogenic organ located in the supraclavicular and neck regions, we hypothesised that an increase in tempera...

Background: Obesity is a global health concern. Elevating energy expenditure (EE) would be a highly effective treatment approach to treat obesity but no current drugs can safely achieve this. Cold exposure potently increases EE through brown adipose tissue (BAT) thermogenesis in humans. Glucagon elevates EE via BAT in rodents but the mechanism in humans is unknown. We investigated for the first time the mechanism by which glucagon increases EE in humans....

Background: Bariatric surgery is currently the most effective treatment for weight loss. Its metabolic effects of weight loss and improvement of type 2 diabetes are mediated mainly through the postprandial elevation of gut hormones such as GLP-1, which suppresses food intake and improves insulin secretion.Aim: To characterize the longitudinal changes in fasting and postprandial secretion of glucose, insulin and gut hormones (GLP-1 and GIP) in patients be...

Introduction: Mild hypercalcaemia can present in 10–15% of hyperthyroid patients. In contrast, its incidence in B cell lymphoma is considerably less (7–8%) but its levels are much higher. We report a patient with hypercalcemia secondary to both thyrotoxicosis and lymphoma.Case report: A 55 year-old lady presented with non specific symptoms of appetite loss and lower limb weakness. Comorbidities included hypertension, diabetes mellitus, hyperlip...

Introduction: One of the main challenges in the management of male hypogonadotropic hypogonadism (HH) is in the restoration of fertility. We describe 2 patients with HH and discuss the difficulties involved in their management.Case (1): A 23-year-old Chinese man presented with lack of secondary sexual characteristics. Examination revealed Tanner Stage 2 with descended testes measuring 6 ml bilaterally. Laboratory results: total testosterone (TT) <1 n...

The amelioration of type 2 diabetes and sustained weight loss after bariatric surgery are thought to be due to elevated circulating levels of the gut hormones peptide YY3–36 (PYY3–36) and glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1). GLP-1 augments the insulin response to an oral glucose load. PYY3–36 has appetite-inhibitory effects and contributes to longer-term weight loss. Rodent studies provide conflicting data regarding the effects of PY...

Backgeound and Aims: Phaeochromocytomas (PCC) and paragangliomas (PGL) are mostly benign sympathoadrenal tumours. However, there are no available markers to predict a malignant course. Since hypoxia is involved in the pathogenesis of these tumours, we aimed to qualify the relevance of the mammalian Target of Rapamycin (m-TOR) and hypoxic pathways in benign and malignant PCC/PGL.Methods: Tissue microarray (TMA) blocks were constructed with 80 PCC/PGL, inc...